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Word: usurp

Definition: seize another's power or rank (without legal authority); supplant; appropriate; N. usurpation; CF. take for one's own use

Sentences Containing 'usurp'

"The Alteration", by Kingsley Amis, is an alternate history novel centred on the "War of the English Succession", during which Henry VIII attempts to usurp the throne of his nephew, Stephen II, Arthur and Catherine's son.

As head of the Zengids, including Gumushtigin, he regarded Syria and Mesopotamia as his family estate and was angered when Saladin attempted to usurp his dynasty's holdings.

Cyprus was a part of the Persian Empire but when the Ionians rebelled from Persian rule, Onesilos used the occasion to capture the city of Salamis and usurp his brother’s throne; he was able to win every city on the island except for the Graeco-Phoenician city-state of Amathus, which stayed loyal to the Persians.

Dowsett claimed victory in the time trial held on the morning of the final day, while Thomas won the points classification, taking the lead on the finish line, after six top-ten placings out of the eight stages enabled to usurp the total of general classification winner Lars Boom (), for an eventual three-point winning margin over 's Mark Cavendish.

Going into the season, many expected it to be his last as starter and that redshirt freshman Steve Clements would usurp him in the following year.

Having stated in the November 1917 “Declaration of Rights of Nations of Russia” that any nation under imperial Russian rule should be immediately given the power of self-determination, the Bolsheviks had begun to usurp the power of the Provisional Government in the territories of Central Asia soon after the establishment of the Turkestan Committee in Tashkent.

He confronted "Knyaz" Ferdinand, and blocked his schemes to usurp additional authority.

He suggested that common sense must be applied in decisions where majority rule displaces an attempt by the minority to usurp documented policies and procedures – much the same as it would be in a non-sectarian intra-organizational dispute.

His life is otherwise obscure until 1143, when, on the death of John II, he plotted to usurp the throne from Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180).

In a word, Senor Don Alvaro Tarfe, I am Don Quixote of La Mancha, the one that fame speaks of, and not the unlucky one that has attempted to usurp my name and deck himself out in my ideas.

In the meantime, Henry Howard, now Lieutenant General Surrey, loses a disastrous battle at Boulogne and, in an attempt to usurp power away from the new men like the Seymours and Richard Rich, he is arrested and tried for treason and executed, despite the paucity of evidence against him.

Kouandété attempted to usurp power again at dawn on February 23.

Picasso's affair with Marie-Therese was a secret, and she would gradually usurp the throne then occupied by Olga Khokhlova, the artist's legal wife.

When few persons of his clan tried to usurp the right of the share holders in the offerings of the shrine, Habeeb Ashraf fought legally on behalf of them and won.